Sugar Jones

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"It's my experience. And if you don't like the way it looks, then stop looking at it! Because I feel good. I don't feel like I'm supposed to be any further along or somewhere that I'm not. I'm right where I'm supposed to be."

Surviving Single Motherhood

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

There's a lot of talk about bikinis on the internet... whether we are "allowed" to wear them or not. If you want to wear one and you're comfortable in one... f+n wear one!

Now... tattoos... that's a little tougher.

Personally, I like them. There are some "trendy" ones from the 90s that I still can't stand only because they didn't speak to the person that got ink'd. The tramp stamps (right where the spine meets the butt) are still popular for a certain aged girl. You know, the age where they feel that the rest of us should no longer wear bikinis (I heard that, you little whipper snapper). I do, however love the tattoos that express the inner makings of the person who chose this form of art.

Oh yeah... I said it... ART!

They are still socially unacceptable among a lot of people I call "friends" which is why I have been thinking for a long time about getting new friends. I always think about the fact that eight years ago, nobody knew me as Mrs. Jones. But here I am now and nobody knows Sugar. Well, that's not entirely true. I still have a large tribe that wouldn't blink about a tattoo. They did, however, make thumbs up or down comments about the nose ring, but they got over it. Getting a tattoo would solidify that Sugar and Jones go together. Like Chocolate and Peanut Butter. Alone, tasty... together... mmmmmmmmmmm.....

I was listening to a radio show this morning in LA. It seems that Firemen and all Emergency personell have to cover their tats. They said before covering them, they never got any comments. Now with bandages all over their arms, they are getting all kinds of questions, drawing more attention to the non-visible markings than before. Some guys are even being made to wear long sleeves in the summer. I thought about a guy I used to work with that had sleeved his arms with tattoos. He was an exec, so the art was always covered with his suits and shirts. But on Casual Fridays, he still covered up choosing to wear long-sleeved jerseys because of our conservative environment. I thought he was going against his true self by doing that, but hey, everyone's gotta pay the mortgage.

My daughter has a tattoo. I completely supported her decision to get it. Her father, on the other hand, was calling her repeatedly right up until she walked in to get inked. I'm surprised he didn't show up with a militia at the last second to rescue her from what he considered the worst mistake of her life. He was really upset. He was even more enraged when she told him that "Mom's cool with it." (As if we needed that to bring us even closer...) He didn't seem to understand what she was truly doing. All he could think was that she was going to look like a gang member and would now begin living a life of crime, I guess. She came out with the word "Lael" in script on her left forearm for all the world to see. Lael means:

Belonging to God

So now what would you think about a tattoo that says "Surrender" on the shoulder of a woman who has learned that she needs to live in constant surrender and would like to have that outward sign of her promise to herself and to God permanently inked to her body?

12 comments:

Growing up LDS, where the leader of our church specifically came out and said NO, NO to tats, I can see why some people might be emphatically against them. I always thought it should be more of a personal path than a public one. In some island cultures, it is almost a right of passage to get a tattoo. I could never be against that tradition.

I am not one of those people who care if a person inks themselves or not. In fact, I am fascinated by them. If you saw one of my recent photo blogs, it was capturing the tats of several people at a party. I love asking people about their body art and seeing what it means to them. It's the same thing as the bikini...if you want to do it. Do it!

My three younger siblings have multiple tattoos. My brother has about seven, my 28 year old sister has two, and my 22 year old sister has about 6. I am helping her design number 8 and 9. They are really important to them, they represent their self-expression. Will they regret them when they are 80? I don't know, I doubt it. They are the way that they mark the big passages of life. I might do mine more in words or paintings, they do it visibly on their bodies.

If you want it, beautiful.

I personally have wanted a little one somewhere, but I just can't commit, my art and my personality change from day to day, like my outfits...I feel I can wear so many faces with different people that I don't want something I can't remove. This is also the reason I have never put dreadlocks in my hair...because inevitably I will want curls two months later!

i am a big tat fan despite not having one (i always wanted a black widow but could never figure out where, and now i want a simple eyeball on the back of my neck). what i don't like are trendy tats...like all those idiotic lower back tats or the ankle ones that were in fashion. Oh and all the tribal bands and foreign language tats...unless you know for sure what it says, don't let someone permanently inscribe it onto you. yeesh. i had a friend who thought he was getting his g/f's name in chinese and instead they wrote mamma's boy lol.

I think a tat should be original, not picked off of a wall. It should mean something, have significance to you. I dated a guy covered in the most beautiful and original tats I've ever seen. (I drew one that's on his chest, now he's stuck thinking of me forever...rat bastard...that's another story) and he said each one was cathartic, a release. It was like a spiritual experience. I think that's a good thing. Not I got drunk and decided to have a mickey mouse tattooed on my ass...

Sugar, I never knew what LAEL means, but now that I do, I love it. I think that's beautiful. Give City Girl a HUG from me, for being bold enough to brand herself as "belonging to God". He will bless her, for honoring him. Truly. I think that's awesome, and your Ed Harris-look-alike ex-husband just needs to PIPE down. (You can tell him I said that.) :-)

(Personally, I don't have tattoos.... but I have nothing against them. )

D'Arcy, there is a passage in Leviticus that forbids tattoos, which is probably why a lot of 'old fashioned' church leaders are squeamish about them, however, Christ came to FREE us from OT law. (Think about all those crazy laws in Leviticus - life would be TOUGH if we had to follow all of those!)

HWHL: To clarify... City Girl's Dad is my first husband. I don't like to give him that title EVER. He doesn't deserve it. That's why I refered to him as "her father." I have a lot of horrible things to say about that man, but I keep him out of this place only because my two older kids read here sometimes... and he is, after all, their father. Oh, but don't you worry... there will be a time when I will GO OFF on the man.

As for Leviticus, the tattoos refer to markings for the dead, meaning other spirits. Bad ones. If you marked yourself for the dead, you were pledging your soul to that spirit. The wandering tribes had a lot of back and forth with God. That's why the laws in Leviticus were so strict and so detailed. They kept finding loop holes. But you're right. Once we were set free, we were set free!

Darcy: I think it's so awesome that you are helping your siblings design theirs. That will be part of their story! So although you don't have ink on you, you are ink'd! BTW: I have a little one that's "hidden" too. It's so much a part of me that when it peeks out of my BIKINI and someone comments on it, I'm like, "Oh yeah..."

I LOVE the Black Widow idea! And I just love how you referred to an ex b/f as a "rat bastard." That is one of my favorite phrases. It just feels so good rolling off the tongue! Say it with me rrraat-bassstard! YAH!

Tena Koe Sugar, Tattos are are integral part of the Maori and Polynesian cultures here in the Southern Hemisphere. They are a connection to the culture, to the family history, or to a place, and the designs are beautiful. If the tattoo is meaningful to you, and part of the essence of who you are now and in the future - in other words the real you, then I write wear it with pride. ka kite ano,Robb

Know what? A tattoo that is a personal statement, no matter how big or small, is deadly cool. The thing about tatoos is that they can be addictive. Once you got yourself one, you just want another one. It is art on the body. I have one small-ish on my arm that have been with me for more years than I care to remember, but I don't even think about it. I wish it was bigger though. I would even wear a bikini, no matter what the kids threatened with.

i like tattoos a lot, although i don't have any. i guess they can be like any other "statement" that you put out there visually about yourself, but they're just harder to change than your clothes or your hair. but i've seen some that were just beautiful and made me think, if i ever got a tattoo, what would it be? it's interesting that you want the word "surrender." that's what "islam" means. what a cool concept.

I don't get who has issues with tattoos anymore? I mean really? I can't even believe they make firemen cover them with bandages ...it blows my mind how close-minded the world STILL is ...as if there are any stereotypes attached with tattoos anymore. Well, I guess "tramp stamp" is a new one -but that's kind of funny . .. and sadly, that's where I got my first when I was 17 - but only because it was the best possible place for it - and it was before the rest of the world did it. but it's part of me and I love it.

I fully support to have or not to have a tattoo - it's your/her body. Only the person inside that body can truly feel beautiful about that body, in a way that matters. You're both beautiful and empowered. :)

I've been thinking that I will get a tat for my 40th b-day. I'm thinking of getting it inside my mouth, actually. I want to get Yud-Hay-Vav-Hay inside my lip. YHVH is Hebrew for Adonai (God). The Hebrew letters, when written vertically rather than horizontally, look sort of like a stick figure man. I figured then I would speak with he breath of Adonai everytime words passed my lips.